Markham NDP

Happy Easter to our community that celebrates! Every year, Easter has meant a time to get together with family, whether it was seeing extended family, or having small get-togethers. The period of Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and until Saturday evening is a solemn period, and Easter Sunday is a day to celebrate; a time for renewal and like many, a time to reconnect with family members and friends. Happy Easter!

Wishing our Tamil community in Markham-Thornhill and those celebrating a Happy Tamil New Year! May the new year bring health and happiness!

Today is our Day of Action: Housing is a Human Right. One of the reasons why I entered into representing Markham-Thornhill is because like myself, so many of my friends and family members in my generation are unable to afford a home. So many of us are still living with our parents, but many Ontarians don't have the privilege to do so, and are seeing the cost of rent going up while wages are stagnant. Greedy billionaires, speculators, flippers, and bad developers continue to heat up the market, and renters don't have the security they need.

Parents in our riding are renting homes and don't see owning a home being a reality. Those who I grew up with in our riding don't see owning a home being a reality either. This shouldn't be the case.

That's why I'm excited to know that the policy we want to implement will help Ontarians:

-Increase the Non-Resident Speculation Tax to 20 per cent, close loopholes, introduce a speculation and vacancy tax for those who own houses they don't live in.
-Regulate short-term rentals so they don't drive up market prices.
-Expand zoning to have mixed use homes, from laneway houses to granny flats.
-End renovictions, meaning renters won't face unfair rent hikes or eviction as a result of renovations.

This weekend, many of our Ontario New Democratic Party candidates attended training, where we got to meet each other in person for the first time. I'm looking forward to working with our candidates, volunteers, hearing concerns from residents, and ensuring that we don't ignore them. Instead, we MUST take action by listening and adapting. Together, we can make life more affordable for ALL Ontarians!

Thank you to the over 30 people who showed up to my nomination meeting on Thursday, March 31! I recognize that so many of us are worried about wages not covering the cost of living. Together, WE can change that.

Mental healthcare is a right, and today's announcement that the Ontario NDP will introduce Universal Mental Health Care is a much needed step for ALL Ontarians! Mental healthcare is health, and not having to worry about being able to afford the care we need is what's important for having strong mental healthcare.

We should have had the childcare deal at least eight months ago. 50% savings by December, which is 8 months away. BC signed their childcare agreement 8 months ago. If we had signed our childcare agreement eight months ago, families would already be saving $800/month on childcare. It shouldn't have taken so long to prioritize the financial well-being of parents across the province when many are living paycheque to paycheque. For profit and not-for-profit spaces need to provide the quality of care that children and parents deserve.

JOIN US TOMORROW! We have our nomination meeting at 7PM on Zoom to meet our candidate for the riding of Markham-Thornhill! We'd love if you can attend for this fundraiser to help cover expenses for informational pamphlets and lawns signs to get the word out in the riding of Markham-Thornhill! Click the link below to RSVP and get the zoom link: https://www.ontariondp.ca/markham-thornhill-ontario-ndp-nomination-meeting

We desperately need protections to prevent this wave from getting worse. The current government is letting the virus spread exponentially. Hospitals are already short staffed due to burnout. If we see hospitalizations increase beyond the Omicron wave, we will have a worse surge in deaths in the BA.2 wave that we're currently in. We therefore need protections to have clean air as well, and in the meantime, we need to bring back universal mask wearing.

We are seeing a rise in hospitalizations, ICU admissions, and deaths in Europe, and we’re going to see the same happen here in Ontario if we don't take action. We need to reinstate universal continuous mask wearing in schools, workplaces, and other indoor settings. Individuals who have a confirmed case should isolate for the full contagious period of 10 days. We need to have vaccine mandates just as we have done with measles, rubella, hepatitis B, meningitis, smallpox, and chicken pox. We need to protect our children by having the mask wearing in indoor settings, while also protecting our community, as even if you're vaccinated, you can still get long haul covid (difficulty concentrating, inability to exercise, inability to speak, memory problems, increased risk of heart attack and/or stroke) which will affect our health care system.

Adding more highway lanes by building the 413 is dangerous to the environment, and will not ease congestion. This highway would destroy nearly six kilometres of forest and 75 wetlands, and pave through 2,000 acres of farmland. We need investments in public transit and make it accessible. We can't continue to add lanes and expect a different result.

Ontarians are paying record high prices – over $1.50 per litre in the Greater Toronto Area, and now we're in the $1.70-$1.90 range, weeks after a record high of $1.94. Big gas chains can raise prices even when the price of oil drops. Five other provinces have some form of gas price regulation, and we need to prevent gas gouging while making the switch to zero emission vehicles.

We shouldn't be leaving our children behind, especially when there are constantly outbreaks in schools. Keeping mask protections are important to ensure that kids can safely attend school, especially those who are immunocompromised, unvaccinated, and/or vulnerable to long covid.

We have seen across the world that adding more lanes will continue the problem congestion. Drivers develop stress disorders, they lose precious time with their loved ones, and they have to pay high prices for repairs, replacement vehicles, and insurance. We need to invest in public transit, not add more lanes. In the proposal that was reported here, there is a promise to have more public transit, but we haven't even seen the Ontario line started yet throughout these past four years. We need transit routes that will properly serve the public and will actually be followed through on, and not dangled as voting incentives. We need to have transit that is accessible, affordable, and comprehensive.

Ontario funds must not line the pockets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs who enabled Vladimir Putin and his unprovoked war. This affects Ontarians by enabling people within Putin's circle. We must prevent money from Ontario from going into Putin's reach.

When housing is seen as a market and not places to live, it shows that the system has been exploited by the rich. When a large proportion of our 20-30 year-olds cannot afford a home because mortgage prices are too high, why is it fair that others are able to afford a second, third, or fourth mortgage? We need housing solutions such as building mixed use homes, with the Non-Resident Speculation Tax (NRST) increasing from 15 to 20 percent to ensure that Ontarians who need a place to live in are prioritized over investors who have multiple homes as vacant properties.

If the current provincial government goes through with ending mask wearing protections on Monday, March 21st, we will see a spike in deaths just as we have seen in Denmark. We are already seeing a slow rise in hospitalizations in Ontario, and deaths will likely follow in the weeks after. In order to avoid the worst of any wave, we need to have an adaptable government that monitors worldwide trends, especially in this pandemic.

That is aside from the fact that whether you are vaccinated or not, you can be at risk of a stroke and/or heart disease if you have even had a mild case of COVID. We don't only risk a surge in deaths from COVID-19, as we will face a continuous backlog of surgeries as hospital beds will be taken up throughout this wave. We need to keep protections for ourselves, our families, our community members, and those most vulnerable. Please call Doug Ford's office (which is staffed 24/7) to tell him to keep mask protections: 416-325-1941.

We saw a rise in hospitalizations from 693 on Monday to 779 on Tuesday, and we're going to see mask mandates removed after march break. Removing covid protections is reckless, as it will leave immunocompromised individuals (people with cancer, cistic fibrosis for example), children under five years old who are ineligible for the vaccine, and those who have only two doses to not be fully protected from severe outcomes. We need a stronger booster campaign, especially when some treatments aren't effective enough for those unvaccinated or partially vaccinated (1-2 doses are not enough against Omicron or BA.2). The BA.2 variant is rising, and to prevent what we have seen in Denmark and Hong Kong, we need to keep wearing masks to live with compassion, not fear.

On International Women's Day today, we celebrate the women in our lives. Our mothers, sisters, aunts, friends, partners who deserve equality in our society. They deserve to feel safe when they walk down the street, to be believed when they share their stories, to be loved for who they are, to be advocated for, to receive equal pay, to feel comfortable and respected in and outside of work settings. We recognize the steps we have taken, but we also know that we have a lot of work to do to ensure that women are treated as equal.

There are a number of our fellow residents who have had four doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, but their doctors advise that they should act as if they're unvaccinated. Their bodies don't make enough antibodies, and even with two booster shots, they might not have a sufficient immune response. The immunocompromised, those with disabilities, older adults and those caring for children under five — are feeling left behind. A Statistics Canada survey in 2020 found that 14 per cent of Canadians had a compromised immune system, while an estimated one in five people have a disability. Nearly five per cent of Ontario’s population is under five years old, and there are almost as many people over 80. That adds up to about 25 per cent of Ontarians who are vulnerable, or 1 in 4 of our neighbours. We don't know which of our fellow neighbours are vulnerable to COVID, and we need to ensure that we protect them by having protections. We need to continue to wear masks before we make proper air filtration upgrades for indoor spaces, and ensure that there are carbon dioxide detectors to have a sense of how the air quality is.

The fact that the current party in charge of the Ontario government is expecting grade three students to complete EQAO is unconscionable. When we're not teaching keyboard literacy before students complete an online standard test, we're failing our students.

Here are options of what we can do instead:
-We should be making the quiz in person on paper
-Teach keyboard literacy before they complete online quizzes
-Leave out the EQAO test for 2022

Our Ontario government is putting off fighting COVID-19 because they don't want to spend that money. We're entering a sixth wave, and instead of spending money on protections such as better air filtration for indoor spaces, and providing N95 masks to residents, we are paying a massive price for his choices. The current government made the decision to cut millions more from hospitals & long-term care, hurting Ontario's ability to respond to the pandemic, plus we're not doing anything to retain our healthcare workers...

This is the time to overhaul our response to climate change. With the war in Russia and fossil fuel giants showing their greed with a reluctance to increase their supply as they try to recoup losses from several years of low oil prices, we need a multi-faceted approach to combat climate change. We need strong financial incentives that make electric vehicles affordable. We need the infrastructure for charging electric vehicles. That way, we can significantly reduce our reliance on fossil fuels in just one of many steps to combat climate change.

The new plan by the Ontario government to pay gig workers for active hours is not enough. Drivers must be making a delivery or transporting a passenger to earn the minimum hourly wage. If we compared this to restaurant workers, sales roles, emergency response workers, etc., these workers spend time waiting as well, and are paid for that time. Should we be paying them less for the time that they wait? No. We need to treat all workers equally, and compensate them justly for the hours they have shown up for.

People should not be freezing to death. When Khaleel Seivwright, a Toronto carpenter who was building tiny portable shelters for people living on the streets to have a warmer, safer place to stay than in a tent, he was instructed to take them down. The “Toronto Tiny Shelters” are insulated like residential homes, have a small window and a door, and are designed to keep an occupant comfortable in -20 degrees Celsius with only the occupant’s body heat to warm it. We have seen a rise in cold-exposure deaths. This is why we need to invest in housing, to have more homeless shelter beds, to make housing more affordable, to have mental health services for those who have experienced trauma, and so much more. Leaving people to freeze to death in one of our cities, in our province, and our country is inhumane. We need to provide solutions for each other so nobody is left behind. That includes mental health supports that are constantly available, making sure that housing is affordable, ensuring that wages keep up with corporate greed which has been disguised too much as inflation, and much more. Organizations such as City Street Outreach shouldn't have to be the only ones providing supports. The government should be there for citizens in the first place.

With the rise of the Omicron B.A. 2 subvariant that has been found to be more severe, we need to keep masking requirements to protect those who are vulnerable. Each layer of protection is important, which means promoting vaccine boosters, switching to N95 masks, and better air filtration. In Denmark, where previous infection has been low like Canada, deaths are reaching near all time highs. The more infections we have, we will see more cases, hospitalizations, deaths, instances of post-covid, and a higher chance of more variants.

The Ukrainian people have to worry about Russian warplanes targeting their homes, and the Ukrainian community in Ontario is worried about their loved ones overseas. The Antonov airport has been seized, and there is fighting at Chernobyl. Our thoughts are with the people of Ukraine, their loved ones here in Ontario, in Canada, and across the world.

The removal of license plate stickers is a ploy. It saves Ontarians $120 a year for passenger vehicles, but it doesn't do enough to help with affordability. Groceries are costing over $1000 more in 2022, housing is more unaffordable, and a $120 savings is barely a dent. Why don't we invest in more vertical farms that are local and reduce transportation costs? We need to innovate, not eliminate revenue sources that help pay for our roads, healthcare, and other government services... But we also need to invest in transit, make affordability a reality, and ensure that climate change is dealt with.

We can't say "We are done" with covid. It's incredibly dangerous. It's ableist. And it leaves behind those who have cancer, who are disabled, and saying that masks are inconvenient does not consider the lives of others. We need to continue to protect each other, especially with the rise of the Omicron subvariants.

And how do we get out of this persistent state and not continue to go into restrictions constantly? We need cleaner air. We need to enforce our mask mandates. That's how we teach our community the fundamentals of caring for each other.

90% of Canadians want to KEEP the current public health measures (masks, vaccine certificates) at least until children are able to be vaccinated. Removing public health measures is incredibly dangerous, as we're seeing in Denmark, where cases, hospitalizations, and deaths have increased due to the dropping of public health measures there. Many Ontarians do not feel comfortable dining indoors unless there is a vaccine passport. We need clean air, mask mandates, and effective contact tracing so we can truly go back to normal. Otherwise, we will constantly go backwards with restrictions if there is a variant that is more infectious and deadlier.

Data from McMaster & Our World in Data

We are all tired of the restrictions, so how do we move forward to prevent further restrictions? We need massive investments to scale up use of K/N95s, testing, ventilation and filtration, sick days, and waiving patents on all vaccines to get out of this mess. That way, we can improve quality of life now, when everyone is so tired, and in future. Doug Ford has catered to partisan interests over science & public health, which is causing thousands of children to lose their parents who have cancer for example. Canadians want vaccine mandates to ensure that they are protected in indoor spaces. We need to ensure people are wearing their masks properly indoors; not under their nose, not below their chin. Otherwise, we could very well be back in this situation in the winter, which is something we all need to understand instead of ending all mandates.

It has been two weeks of protests in Ottawa, and now, we have seen blockades at the border in Windsor, and across the country. The fact that there hasn't been any action to protect the residents of Ottawa from the noise and air pollution is reprehensible. We should be taking action, and not pointing fingers about jurisdiction. This is the problem when jurisdiction becomes the political pawn. We need to take action to tell truckers to go home, starting with stripping commercial licenses for those who are blocking roads, and we need to enforce bylaws for illegally occupying. Canadians and Ontarians are frustrated by the lack of action, and removing mandates could make the pandemic worse if another more deadly variant emerges. It's a huge reason why we need better preventative measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19, especially indoors with mask wearing (including the implementation of fines for improperly wearing masks), to improving air filtration.

Truckers are illegally occupying the streets of Ottawa for over a week now, and Doug Ford hasn't condemned their actions. Their supporters have defecated on numerous porches for flying pride flags, assaulted seniors who wear a mask, they're blaring their horns into the night and preventing residents from sleeping. Doug Ford needs to take action now. If tow truck drivers refuse to tow vehicles as ordered by the police, their license plates and towing licenses should be removed. It's important to lead now, and the bare minimum isn't being met.

We understand that everyone is tired of the mandates, but we need to communicate better with our citizens that vaccines save lives. We've seen the same with measles, polio, mumps, chicken pox, and now COVID-19 as ICU/hospitalizations represent a larger share of the unvaccinated vs the share of the vaccinated. A majority of our truckers are vaccinated, and they're ensuring that our shelves are full. It's time to protect our residents.

Healthcare workers are our heroes as they continue to care for our loved ones throughout this pandemic, vaccinated or unvaccinated. We need to protect our healthcare workers by repealing bill 124, which would have their pay keep up with inflation to afford the cost of living. We need that for everyone in Ontario too so nobody has to worry about whether the cost of living will be more than what they make. With healthcare workers, they deserve those protections NOW for all that they have done throughout this pandemic, and for all they have done to save lives overall.

Day three of the protests in Ottawa, and we have yet to see a condemnation from Doug Ford, yet our current constituents _@logankanapathi, , and haven't condemned the hatred we have seen. We have seen a n**i flag, n**i symbols defacing the Canadian flag, Confederate flags, throwing beer cans at journalists, urinating on the National War Monument, standing on the tomb of the unknown soldier, and it continues. People with disabilities, those who are on immunosuppressants, and those who are severely immunocompromised don't feel safe. Citizens of Ottawa do not feel safe. We need leadership from a Premier that condemns hatred and ensures that everyone feels safe.

Please share this with a friend to increase visibility: Students don't feel comfortable returning to post-secondary education. For York students, they're returning to classes this week, and aren't guaranteed safety in the form of ensuring everyone is wearing their masks properly, proper social distancing in lecture halls, and CLEAN AIR. For international students, they're forced to find a place to stay for a short period of time, and they aren't guaranteed to find a unit or afford one given the high costs of rent. Students can't isolate if they test positive, and having to commute, they won't feel safe on public transportation. With professors not feeling safe as well, we need to continue online learning for the remainder of this semester to ensure that everyone has peace of mind. This omicron wave isn't over, and forcing students back to school is dangerous as they commute along public transportation.

A reminder that we need to continue to be cautious with COVID-19. Getting vaccinated, especially our boosters, is important to reduce the burden on our hospitals (plus we need to invest in our healthcare more so they don't get overwhelmed in the first place).

Bell, let's talk about how you profit off of prisons and jails. The Ontario Auditor General's 2019 annual report found that one-third of all prisoners admitted across the province had "a mental alert on their file." These facilities have had frequent lockdowns due to COVID-19 outbreaks, and have very little social connection. The cost is $1 a call for local calls, and up to $30 for a 20-minute long-distance call. We need to reform our prison system to ensure that prisoners can be transitioned to everyday life, and not focus on punishment.